


Just Because I Love You so Much

by InNeedOfInspiration



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Romanogers - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Humor, Jealousy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-16 00:03:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5805511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InNeedOfInspiration/pseuds/InNeedOfInspiration
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve never was a jealous partner, but circumstances were different this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Because I Love You so Much

**Author's Note:**

> A romanogers prompt I received a couple of days ago. Enjoy!

Steve Rogers was not a jealous partner. First because he trusted his counterpart unconditionally and mostly because Natasha had always ensured to show her commitment to their relationship nearly every night. What was there to question or doubt about? But that day, though, the circumstances were different.

"Why her?," Steve asked with a sharp tone of voice, standing in the room while he and his team were discussing and elaborating their plan of attack for the same night.

For the mission to be a success and minimize the possible casualties, it had been decided that someone would have to  _distract_ the target without raising suspicions then retrieve the electronic chip he had in his possession. Steve had nodded approvingly, this plan was nothing short of safe and clever.

It sounded like a fairly sensible plan until Stark mentioned that the  _distraction_ would have to be Natasha. Knowing the chip was very likely to be hidden somewhere in the luxurious hotel room where the target was staying, there was one only way to make it upstairs without engaging an armed offensive.

This was when the plan became nothing short of absurd and weak. Steve hated it.

"One of us would have gladly volunteered," Tony said nonchalantly pointing to himself, Barton and Banner. "But I'm afraid we forgot to restock our wig supplies."

Banner pinched his upper lip to keep himself from smiling at the his friend's snarky comment. Steve was in no mood to joke around.

"Plus, anyway, according to the rota on the fridge, it was agent Romanoff's turn to play the role of the charming evening acquaintance," Stark added. He was clearly enjoying this whole 'disadvantages of seeing another member of the team because it can affect the good teamwork' situation way too much.

"I mean why do we have to proceed that way?" Steve corrected. "That Erik Zummer guy is an assassin himself. If he finds out who Natasha is, she won't be safe. And I can't agree to put the life of one of my men at risk like this."

His point was made, and it did play a big part in the equation of why he disagreed with the plan, although it wasn't the only variable.

Natasha was standing by the corner of the room, arms crossed over her chest, silent and focused.

Stark looked at him like he had just voiced out the most idiotic argument ever.

"We've got no choice, here," Tony said. "We know for a fact the Organization will strike one of the world's big cities in a few days and it is crucial that we find where it will happen if we want to stop it. Zummer has the intel we need and he finally came back into our radars. Our only chance at catching him is tonight."

Steve clenched his jaw and didn't say a word. Stark was right. Zummer had gone missing for weeks, them finding out he would be in town tonight was indecent luck. A chance he couldn't blow, not when the stakes were bigger than him and his ego (not bigger than Natasha though, nothing was bigger than Natasha).

"Zummer is a narcissistic womanizer," Bruce chimed in sheepishly from his isolated spot.

Tony pointed to his colleage and nodded.

"Exactly! He won't even wonder what hidden motivations a pretty woman coming up to him could possibily have. He'll drop his guard down immediately."

"That's when Nat will strike," Clint spoke from the high step he was sitting on. He didn't sound as enthusiastic as Stark- his face actually expressed as much concern and disapproval as Steve, but unlike him he had been able to keep a cool head and take a step back to look at the whole picture.

"Do I have a say in this?" Natasha spoke up from her corner. They all turned to look at her.

Her face was stern and fitted the situation. She took a couple of steps forward and briefly shot a glimpse in Steve's direction.

"I'll do it," she said firmly, slightly nodding her head in approval.

Steve swallowed in in silence. He was not surprised by Natasha's decision and he respected her way too much to go against her will.They looked each other in the eye for a few seconds, long enough to quietly say everything that needed to be said.

"Alright," he eventually said with a surrendering tone, riverting his eyes back onto the rest of the team. "Wheels up in thirty."

The following evening, they were all in their positions. Bruce was sitting in the hotel reception hall, his line of sight directed straight onto the bar where customers were having a drink. Clint was perched on the roof of the opposite building getting the most clear view of the target's suite. Tony was occupying a room at the hotel across the street, at the same floor level as the target, having the whole view of the facade with his binoculars. As for Steve, he was waiting in the hotel backstairs, dressed in his stealth suit, ready to intervene if the situation were to go  _out of control_ . 

Out of control. Natasha had insisted on that after Steve had made a modification to the original plan by imposing to be inside the building and ready to step in. Natasha had agreed to the only condition that he wouldn't come up to the room unless she intelligibly requested for back-up. This condition didn't satisfy him to say the least but he complied nevertheless.

"All in positions." He spoke into the transmitter.

"I'm going in," Natasha answered. "Over."

She made her toward the bar, wearing a gorgeous midnight blue dress that perfectly molded the most flattering parts of her body and made her look like the ravishing creature any normally constituted man would want to possess. Her red hair was tied in an elegant updo letting her locks at the front fall around her face.

She walked confidently across the hall, went past Banner and made her way into the bar, straight to the tool next to the target. The man turned and was immediately acknowledged by her striking presence. His body language betrayed him before he had time to voice out his intentions.

"He just engaged contact," Bruce informed to all of his teammates as he watched from his table Zummer start the conversation and Natasha respond to it with a seductive smile.

"Booya, Romanoff," Stark commented with a light tone.

Steve internally sighed at the news. As satisfied he was to know the plan was working, part of him wished it hadn't.

"Copy that. Keep us updated," he said.

"Are you sure that's what you really want though, Captain?" Tony asked teasingly, looking out his window toward the hotel.

The guy was not even trying to hide how amusing he found the whole situation.

Natasha carried on with her mission, listening to what was being said into her earpiece while keeping her head into the mission. She laughed with Zummer, listened attentively to the long 'me, myself and I' speech every man she had ever lured into her trap had given her in a pathetic attempt to impress her. Zummer was like every other man, like  _any_ other man, and this made him tragically boring and predictable. He soaked up her trappings and fell for her little games so ridiculously fast; something she hadn't experienced for a while, something she had nearly lost the habit of since she had met Steve.

She seductively crossed one leg over the other, letting the silky slip down to reveal the bare skin of her thigh. She smiled at him suggestively as Zummer looked down and ogled her leg.

"The target is caught in the net," Bruce said, sipping from his drink while looking discreetly in their direction.

The new piece of information caught Steve's curiosity.

"Elaborate. Have they gone up to the room, yet?" he asked with a tone of voice more grave than a few minutes before.

"No. Not yet," Banner replied into the transmitter.

"Then what is it?" Steve asked. Being in the blue was worse than he had imagined.

"I dont think we need to know every-" Bruce started, sounding slightly uncomfortable.

"Cap says he wants the details, give him the details, Banner," Tony chimed in from his hotel room.

"Guys, is all this really necessary?" Clint spoke in.

"You stay up in your nest. Banner, just spill the details," Tony went on daringly.

"Banner. What's going on?" Steve asked, feeling the tension growing. All this talk about untold details was starting to get in his head.

Bruce babbled shyly. "It-it's just. There's no much to say."

"Much? Oh so that's already something," Tony commented on the line with a casual tone.

"Stark, why don't you remain quiet until you get a visual and your comments actually become relevant?" Steve grumbled.

"I'm just trying to get the most accurate picture of the situation. Am I the only here who's actually conscientious about his work?"

"So tell me," the Eastern european accent cut them all. Zummer, oblivious of all the argument that was taking place in Natasha's earpiece less than a foot away from him was on a wooing spree. "What is a gorgeous woman like you doing here all by herself?"

"Oh, you know," Natasha started, playing with the crystal couple glass in front of her. "I guess I'm just trying to get some good time."

"No boyfriend?" Zummer asked with furrowed brows.

Somehow, although it didn't make any sense, Steve's body irrationally tensed up at what her answer would be.

Natasha rose the corner of her mouth.

"Well, let's just say I've never had the chance to meet the right guy. I thought he was the one this time," she answered with a light nostalgic tone; nostalgic enough to sound truthful but with a nonchalance that wouldn't make her sound depressive and therefore unacttractive. She knew with experiencce that men enjoyed nothing more than an innnocent, fragile woman to make them look strong, viril and glorious.

"Confession time. Time to listen up, Cap," Tony teased through the transmitter.

Steve exhaled loudly.

"Stark, if you don't stop talking...," he started.

"Sure, Rogers. Keep on threatening me all the way from across the street. It really has its effect on me," Stark answered coolly, swallowing a mouthful of peanuts.

"Let me guess," Zummer spoke. "He was a dickhead?"

Natasha turned and for a half-second, her face remained impassive. She then smiled at him.

"I guess you could say that," she answered with a nod.

It was all fake and Steve knew it, but he still felt a twitch.

The conversation went on for another twenty minutes during which Clint surveyed the area.

"So, Natalie," Zummer purred suavely.

"Hu-oh," Bruce blurted out without thinking then immediately regretted it.

Steve spun around. "What is it?" he asked, pressing his earpiece farther in.

"He-he's got his hand on her thigh," Bruce said sheepishly.

Steve felt punched in the stomach.

Zummer's thumb was indeed tracing small circles on her thigh, a detail Bruce thought it was safer to keep for himself.

"It's getting fun, at long last. I was actually starting to consider the guy was gay," Tony commented with inappropriate excitment. "What else?"

"We don't need more," Steve cut him in.

"Stop being a party pooper, Captain."

"Stark, if it was Pepper who was in there...," Steve started angrily.

The two of them were now bickering on the line.

"Guys, how about we take it down a notch, huh?" Clint suggested from his roof.

"How about we go have another drink in my room, upstairs?" Zummer whispered with a husky voice.

A deadly silence fell into everyone's earpiece. Natasha took her eyes off the hand he had on her thigh and looked up at him with her wide emerald eyes.

"Why's that?," she murmured. "What is so interesting to see in your room?"

The Avengers were all quiet and well-behaved as they hung to the target's lips, Steve being the first in the line

Zummer smirked. "I can show you my...large and impressive collection of cufflinks."

The three teammates all snorted simultaneously; Bruce nearly spilled the sip he was drinking all over his shirt, it took every bit of strength of Natasha to resist the infectious giggle her friends were having in her earpiece and not to laugh at his face. Steve leaned against the fence in the backstairs. He had to admit, it was hilarious. He would have laughed whole-heartedly if that lame, dirty comment hadn't been made to the woman he was in love with.

"This guy is good," Stark commented. "I mean, I'm not even her and  _I_ want to go up to his room."

"Tony, are you gonna shut up?" Steve barked.

"Well, you sure have aroused my curiosity," Natasha commented, turning a deaf ear on the second round of bickering of the night.

She grabbed her purse and followed Zummer out of the bar. On her way past Banner, she quickly looked over her shoulder and gave him a hard look for spilling the hand details earlier. Banner responded by diving his nose into his glass and looking away.

"Okay, Stark. It's your turn. You should get a visual of them in a few seconds," Steve said.

Stark stepped up to his window and took his binoculars up to his face.

"Okay, I got them," he answered with composure and professionalism. "They just got out of the elevator," he described as he watched them walk along the hall through his binoculars.

"Keep us informed," Steve said then pursed his lips together. "Moderately!" He warned with a hard voice.

He heard Tony huff in his earpiece as if he had just made an inconsiderate request.

"OK. They're in," he said after a few seconds.

"Yup. I can see them," Clint confirmed, squatting down on the edge of the roof.

"Nat," Steve spoke. Natasha remained impassive to the calling of her name in her earpiece. "Be ready to roll."

She turned on her heels and smiled at Zummer who was closing the door after having attached the "not disturb" card onto the doorknob behind. Romantic.

He walked up to her, unbuttoning his collar and loosening the tie around his neck. She smirked back and sat on the bed with her legs crossed and bare.

Tony suddenly gasped with a mix of shock and stupefaction. "They're doing it! They're totally doing it!"

Steve's heart skipped a beat. It couldn't be. She had sworn not to cross the line. She would never do that to him. No matter how hard he tried to remember it, the mental image of this man pawing her made him want to tear him apart like he did the lodge in Clint's farm.

He shot a glance up the stairs he was stuck in, ready to blow up the mission and barge in the room even if that meant smash the door with his own hands.

"Doing what!?" Steve exclaimed with distress.

Endless seconds of silence followed.

"They're totally looking at his collection of cufflinks!" Stark answered with the same scandalized tone. "And I got to say, from what I can see it totally looks impressive."

Bruce and Clint were now chuckling like teenage girls although Steve could hear they were trying to muffle it with their hands.

"Stark, you son of a bitch," he said from the very bottom of his heart.

"Take it easy, Cap. I was just trying to lighten the mood. It seemed like you could use a good laugh."

"And see the treble clef shaped ones? I had them crafted in Milan with a pure sapphire," Zummer recited proudly for what everyone could tell wasn't the first time.

"Okay, I'm done with this clufflink fetishist," Steve spoke into the transmitter. It could have lingered on for slightly longer if it hadn't been for Stark's continuous straining remarks. "Nat, neutralize him."

"So, we're...all alone?" Natasha asked, looking right and left into the rooms of the suite.

Zummer's eyes twinkled at the prospect of what was coming next, and probably satisfied to see his collection had had some kind of aphrodisiac effect on her.

She slowly slipped her hand in the split of her dress down her inner thigh.

"We are indeed," he answered with a hoarse voice and dilated pupils.

She smiled and gently took a grip of the small seryngue attached to her garter-belt. Before she could pull it out, Zummer bounced at her and pinned her down to the floor.

"Her cover is blown. I repeat her cover is blown," Clint cried into the transmitter.

Steve pressed his earpiece.

"Keep your position and be ready to intervene if I say so," he commanded. He felt his heart pounding in his chest. "Natasha, are you alright?"

Natasha and Zummer were rolling around the floor, she headbutted him then rolled them around to straddle him. He riposted with a violent punch, whose sound echoed in all the Avengers' earpieces.

"I'm coming!" Steve shouted, running up the stairs.

"Negative," she growled back as she gave the man another head-butt then ended up being pinned under him again. "I got this under control," she said between two hits although no one could tell if she was the one giving them or getting them.

He froze in the stairs and violently bit his bottom lip, closing his eyes.

"Nat, don't," he muttered. She couldn't be going there, not now.

More groaning coming both from her and the target came up in their earpieces.

"I said I got this," she repeated stubbornly as she tried to get a grip of the seryngue thrown a few feet away on the carpet.

Steve punched the wall next to him. "Damn it," he muttered to himself.

He could feel his limbs shaking because of the fear and the vivid anger. He would have had no problem letting her manage any other criminal (although part of him would always worry for her) but not Zummer. His unofficial resume showed he was just as skilled and experienced as Natasha.

"Barton, Stark, Bruce. Any incoming?" he asked.

"Negative," they all answered from their respective vantage point.

"Gun. Gun.Gun," Stark cried from his window with wide eyes as he watched Zummer reach for aa silent gun under the mattress and aim it at Natasha.

She dove aside, grabbed the silver platter with champagne and jolted it at him. It hit him straight in the throat. She jumped on him and wrapped her legs around his neck, the veil train of her dress falling on his face and blocking his view. He screamed with rage and ran backward to tackle her against the wall. She let out a cry of pain as he clutched each side of her waist and threw her to the ground unrestrainedly. The rough sound of the impact made all her teammates flinch.

Steve dug his hands in his hair.

"I'm coming," he spoke, the weak intensity of his voice betraying the psychological affliction he was going through at this exact moment.

"No," she answered barely audible as Zummer clasped his hands around her throat and squeezed to choke her. The earpiece fell out to the ground.

"Nat? Nat?" Steve cried desperately. "Can you see her?" he muttered to the others.

"Negative," Clint answered with a frustrated voice, the bow stretched, the arrow ready to fly through.

"No visual," Tony answered sympathetically.

Steve reached the limit of what was beyond bearable. He'd rather she made out it alive and killed him for his breaking his promise then lose her for letting her prove a point.

He ran up the last few stairs, barged through the door and ran up the hall to the suite. He literally ploughed into the door and burst it.

He distressingly looked around the room and found Zummer crying out in pain as Natasha who was standing behind him took a firm grip of his arm and yanked it backward. The sound of his breaking bone was soon covered by his howling. She breathed out, slightly out of breath as he fell to the ground, holding his shoulder and muffling his groan into the expensive rug.

"What are you doing, here?" she asked with a panting voice when she noticed his presence, a black eye, a swollen cheekbone, ruffled hair, a torn dress and sweat on her face. In spite of all this, she showed all the signs of resilience to start a new fight. With him, this time.

"You didn't think I could do it?" she said in disbelief.

Uh-oh. Trouble ahead.

"You weren't answering," he answered vehemently as it justified it all. He couldn't take his eyes off the marks on her face.

It didn't justify anything to Natasha.

She leaned in to pick up the earpiece and put it back in.

"I said I had it under control!" Natasha shouted back.

The sound of clearing throats echoed in their pieces.

"I'm...gonna go patroll the rest of the area. Over," Clint said.

"I'm gonna go grab...huh...another drink at the bar," Bruce continued. "Over."

Stark was last to make his presence known.

"I'm going as well, but only because I'm not in for your bickering. Over."

Natasha and Steve stood silently in the middle of the room, looking at each other with a hard expression.

"You don't' trust me," Natasha said eventually.

He sighed. "Of course I do, but Nat, you can't expect me to pace peacefully around while I hear you being beaten up!"

She shot him a death glare. "Oh so I was the one beaten up?  _I_ beat the crap out of him!"

Zummer whailed in agony just then. Natasha had just stepped on his broken shoulder to make him cry and add some dramatical effect to her statement.

"Do you want me to say I'm sorry?" he protested. "Cause I'm not. I'd do it again. And again. And again. It's a no brainer."

The tone of his voice had softened to end the hostilities, mostly because it was an argument that wouldn't get them anywhere. She tood firmly in her positions, and God knows he stood firmly in his.

He went up to her, eager to soothe her visible wounds; and the other ones, too. He reached for her face to stroke her bruised skin. Natasha stepped awaybefore he could get any closer and walked out of the room, leaving him alone.

They didn't speak to each other for the rest of the night. After the chip was retrieved, the team flew back to New York. Clint brought Steve reassuring news during the flight. Natasha had gotten away with superficial wounds only; no broken bone.

As soon as they landed, Natasha headed to her private apartment when she usually shared his.

Steve went have a shower, lied in his bed and stared silently at the ceiling until he drifted off to sleep.

He was woken up not so long after by the shaking of his moving mattress and felt an arm wrap over his chest. He recognized the familiar perfume of Natasha's hair under his chin and opened his eyes, putting his arm around her.

"I'm sorry," she said against his chest. "You worry about me and I shouldn't try to take that away from you."

He exhaled in relief and held her tighter against him.

"I'm sorry, too," he said. "I was so blinded by anger all I wanted was a shot at smashing this moron's face."

Natasha chuckled against his chest and it made his heart glow like every time he made her laugh. A joy he couldn't quite explain but that he never grew tired of feeling.

"Speaking of moron,' she whispered with a mischievous smirk. "I may or may not have poured chili pepper powder in Stark's favorite ground coffee."

He closed his eyes and burst into chuckles. Their giggles softly sounded out in the dark bedroom. It was going to be hard not to laugh in the kitchen the next morning. A breakfast he looked forward to as he and Nat would share conniving glances while Stark would be making his coffee.

"So, you were jealous?" Natasha asked with a teasing but content voice. He didn't know what to answer. His behavior had been irrational and silly and he wasn't really proud of it. Natasha rose and climbed to straddle him. She looked down at him with a smirk. "I find that to be very sexy," she purred and took off her top to reveal the black satin bra she was wearing underneath.

He smiled cheekily as he relished the sight before him and slid his hands up to the small of her back.

"I'm afraid I can't compete with Zummer's large and impressive collection of cufflinks," he teased.

She shook her head, laughing, then leaned down to him. Her face was only inches apart from his, her warm breath tickling his lips, staring at him with twinkling eyes.

"Shut up and kiss me."

  
  


 

 


End file.
